Heretofore, it has been known to provide various types of fishing lures having constructions designed to attract and/or stimulate fish movement and hence, maximize the fish catch. For example, various types of illuminated fishing lures have been provided which utilize a variety of light emitting sources for attracting fish. Patents typifying such prior lures are identified in the following listing:
3,040,462 PA1 4,085,538 PA1 3,721,033 PA1 4,114,305 PA1 3,950,868 PA1 4,227,331
As it will be seen, the above patents disclose fishing lures of the type which have generally employed incandescent light sources to enhance the ability to attract fish. However, it has been recognized that such lures utilizing incandescent light source materials are oftentimes subject to breakage because of the requirement to secure the incandescent material within the body of the lure. Also, it has been recognized that some type of protection or shield must be provided to encapsulate the incandescent material and/or to replace the same after extended periods of use. Accordingly, because of these difficulties, it has been a problem to provide lures that are not of a bulky and/or large size thereby reducing the number of body shapes which might otherwise be utilized for attracting a particular variety of fish. For example, the recently issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,499 to Ottaviano illustrates a relatively large size lure having an elongated body rather than having a "bug-like" configuration.
In the past, it has also been known to use light emitting sources in the form of light emitting diodes (LED's). Such LED designs provide advantages over the aforementioned incandescent light-type lures because of the interior location of the LED within the lure body. This interior construction has, to some extent, the difficulty of reducing the viewing angle of the LED. U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,868 is an example of such LED application.
More recently, fishing lures have been provided employing an LED light source which includes suitable circuitry to provide intermittent energization of the LED and having electronic water sensors which act as a switching mechanism to energize the LED when the lure contacts water and to de-energize the LED when the lure is removed from the water. It has been found, however, that such prior lures do not provide optimum light emitting characteristics while insuring good operating efficiencies (i.e. cost) over a prolonged periods of time.